It was meant to be simple: my first job in weeks. Find the girl, get the money-shot, get paid, get bent on cheap whiskey and fall into a drunken stupor at one in the morning. It was all so simple.

This is the life of a disgraced police officer turned P.I., and it’s falling apart. “But Jack,” I hear you say. “It sounds like your life is lousy enough: the deadbeat job, the lack of work, the alcoholism. You’re a P.I. and you’ve only got the dough for three lousy bullets. How could it possibly get worse?”

You know when you get a call in the middle of the night, and it’s your bitter, no-good past on the other end of the line? A past you’d hoped you’d never think about as long as you lived? And how about when that phone call leads you to the still-cooling body of your treacherous ex-partner?

Before tonight I thought I had problems. I had no idea what was coming.

Don’t get me wrong, the body wasn’t the worst of it. Finding a body’s one thing. The police thinking you’re the one who put it there? That’s different.

And if that weren’t bad enough, any sleep I do get is plagued by dreams of my ex-partner and the fellas that rubbed him out. And the queer thing is, the things I see? Turns out they happened.

And with that you’re dropped into Mad Orange’s 1930’s New York, brought to miserable, whiskey-sodden life through elaborate interactive elements. You can walk the streets on the bad side of town, take a turn in the cheap, ill-fitting shoes of an embittered alcoholic, maybe even bribe some folks and get answers to that age-old question: Whodunnit?

And in return, Jack might avoid spending what’s left of his life staring at the same four walls.

As indie developers, we want to bring our amazing content to the people who matter – the people who support the industry and the studios involved by contributing to our community.

That means you! Yes, you! You matter to us!

Fortunately, the indie scene no longer has to rely on publishers who’ve bled us dry and thrown us out! Phoenix Online was far from the only one to have terrible experiences with a publisher. That’s why we want to help these nice people at Mad Orange out by bringing their fantastic products to new markets, like the English-speaking world! Until now, Face Noir has only been available in German and Italian, but now you can enjoy the grit of 1930s New York with all the English noir-speak that entails.

Face Noir will release on July 18th with an updated inventory system, improved gameplay, puzzles and full English localization. Face Noir is available for pre-order now just for $15.99 (reg. $19.99) and the pre-order exclusively comes with the beautiful Face Noir Sountrack!

About POstudiosOne of us since 9:07 AM on 02.15.2013

Established in 2004 and previously known as 'Phoenix Freeware Online', Phoenix Online Studios began as a fan group of King's Quest fans coming together to create an unofficial sequel to the series.

Their first project, The Silver Lining, got the attention from publications such as PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, GameInformer, Edge Magazine, GamesTM, Kotaku, Mtv News and Joystiq. Today, we've been granted an IP license by Activision to publish all 5 episodes free to play.

Phoenix Online Studios is currently working on their first commercial endeavors - Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller, recently released Episode 1 last October, and Episode 2 is about to be released Jan 30th, 2013. The game follows a Boston FBI agent, who lost her brother years ago to a serial killer who was never caught. With post-cognition abilities, Erica Reed is able to see the past of the objects just by touching it, adding a twist in this paranormal adventure game.

More information about Phoenix Online Studios or any of our projects can be found at www.postudios.com